Kia ora whanau

We have had a wonderful first few weeks at school. Our new children and staff are settling in very well. We also welcome Shannon Heath who is our teaching assistant and Thalia Pugh who is our new cleaner/gardener. A big thank you to Megan who stepped in for the interim.

Our new bus is nearly here, but unfortunately we don’t have a bus driver. This is quite a concern for us, so we ask you to please go out to your contacts and see if there is anyone interested. We could split the job if necessary where someone does the morning run and someone does the afternoon run. You do need a passenger licence and a class 2, and we are happy to help anyone to get these.

Ngā mihi

Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Pita Pit/Sushi
As part of our ‘Healthy Lifestyles’ focus we are now offering Pita Pit and Sushi every Wednesday through Lunches Online. Pita Pit starts this Wednesday and Sushi is next week. I have sent an email out on how to register, so let me know if you have any issues.

Enviroschool
We have had two very productive and inspiring meetings with Matt Stanford from Enviroschools. We are doing a lot of talking and thinking around our vision and how we see Enviroschools working in our school. Our next step is to get a student group together, where Matt will train them up so they can work with the whole school and gather student voice. This is a community initiative, so if you have any ideas we would love to hear them, or if you would like to be involved in anyway, please let me know.

Year 6-8 Walk - Wednesday 20th February
We had planned to do the Tiromoana Walk, but it is closed due to the fire risk. So we are going to walk the Waipara Trail instead.

Football - 5-8 year olds
The Hurunui Rangers are trying to put together a local football tournament for 5-8 year olds. They will play on Saturdays in winter. If your son or daughter would like to be part of this, please let me know.

Pumpkins
The Glenmark Lions have donated 150 pumpkins to the school which we are very grateful for. We are selling these for $4 each, so let us know if you would like to buy any. Nick Hamilton has them at his place, so you are welcome to contact him directly.

Year 5-8 Assembly
A reminder that our senior assembly is this Friday at 2pm. The whole community is invited. Please keep an eye on our calendar for future assembly dates.

Year 0-4 Triathlon
This is on Monday 25th February at 9.30am at Omihi School. Children will be practising this week, so please send their bikes along to school. They are welcome to leave them here all week. We would love to see you at the event.

Year 5-8 Triathlon
This is on Wednesday 27th February at Amberley. All children are encouraged to participate. We ask that you please transport your own child and bike there on the day. If you are able to help on the day, please let me know.

Swimming Sports
Year 4-8 Small School Swimming sports is on Wednesday 6th March at Amberley Swimming Pool, children need to be there by 9.15am. We are still looking for transport. If you can help, please let me know. I also need a couple of parents to help on the day.

Volunteers for Omihi School Farm Race
Our two fundraisers for the year are the Raffle in term 4 where we ask families to sell tickets and our Farm Race where we ask families to give up half a day to volunteer. I know there are some of you entering, which is great! If you aren’t doing the race we would love to have your help on the day. The grey shaded boxes are where we need help, so please add your name to the document or email me.

3 Way Learning Conferences
These are on Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th March. It is an opportunity for yourself, your child and your child’s teacher to sit down and work out their goals for the year. Please add your name to this document.

Year 8 2019 School Based Vaccination Programme
The Canterbury DHB will continue to offer a School Based Vaccination Programme to Year 8 boys and girls, who have not completed their eleven year old vaccinations in General Practice.

The School Based Vaccination programme will offer the two dose HPV vaccinations to protect against genital warts, cervical cancer, throat and mouth cancers, and other types of cancers later in life. In 2018 the programme has been extended to include a one dose Boostrix vaccination to provide protection against Tetanus, Diphtheria and Whooping Cough.

To enable students to receive the vaccinations at school, a vaccination pack will be sent home in Term 1. The Parent/Caregiver will need to complete and return the consent form to school.

Omihi BOT
We are delighted to announce that Ingrid Davis has been co-opted onto the BOT to be our Chairperson. We will be sending out information later this term regarding the BOT elections in term 2. We are looking for new people to join the BOT as there are members stepping down after a long service. Here is a message from Ingrid:

David and I have two boys, Griffin at Boys High and Ace in year 8 at Omihi. We live on a small farm (100 acres), just north of Amberley. We have our own aerial topdressing business which covers a lot of the South Island. I also work part time at Arthur Burke in Amberley. I like to play tennis and netball and love to get away road tripping in our bus whenever time allows.

It is a privilege and I am excited about taking on a role with the Board as I see an exciting future for Omihi School. I look forward to helping the school community continue to grow and offer our children the amazing opportunities that they currently enjoy.

Community Notices

Glenmark Netball
Registration Day for all primary aged players & trials for the Primary Teams to be held at the Glenmark Netball Courts in Omihi on Sunday 3rd March at 10am. All Senior & High School players please register with Milly Croft at milly_croft@yahoo.co.nz. Any queries please visit & like the Glenmark Netball Club facebook page or contact Jayne Sidey at c.j.sidey@amuri.net.

Omihi School Farm Race - Sunday 24th March, 2019
The entries are coming in fast for our race, please help us to continue to spread the word. If you would like to volunteer on the day, please let me know. I will send a google doc out to parents with all the jobs we need help with.

M Factor Fashion Show for Ronald McDonald House - Thursday 4th April, 2019
This year the show is at The Tannery. We have local stores Bax and Berg and Ruby six involved again and some of our students will be modelling. We would love to see you there to help us support Ronald McDonald House. Tickets are available on Ticketmaster. More details below.

Kia ora whanau

We have had a wonderful week back at school. It’s been a hot one, but the children have loved being back with their friends and making new friends! We welcome Miss Mickleson, Michael, Thomas, North and Acacia to our Omihi whanau. It’s also lovely to have Xsara back again.

We have started off the year with a school wide inquiry on ‘Healthy Lifestyles’. We are looking forward to looking into how we can look after our bodies and our minds. Last week the teachers and I joined all of our local schools for a teacher only day with Lucy Hone. If you haven’t heard her speak, I would definitely recommend her. Lucy focuses on wellbeing and resilience, how we can ensure this for ourselves and how we can teach our children. Last year every child found out what their character strengths are. We are revisiting these and will be displaying all of our character strengths on the wall, so please come in and see them. Strengths don’t only align with sports and academic ability. Not all children have these. But every single child and adult has character strengths. We want to acknowledge and celebrate these. We agree with Lucy and believe that these strengths matter. They help with relationships, engagement, positive emotion and social climate.

One of the quotes that Lucy shared was this: ‘Unwanted and unexpected change is often forced upon us, while we cannot control our life circumstances, we can control our responses’. In partnership with our parents, we want to help your children learn how to cope in these situations.

Another quote she shared from Einsten really hit home with me as well - ‘If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its entire life believing it is stupid’.

I’ll leave you to ponder that one.

Enjoy Wednesday off for Waitangi Day. We look forward to seeing you at our whanau picnic on Wednesday 13th February.

Ngā mihi

Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Enrolment Scheme
We have been instructed by the Ministry of Education to enforce an enrolment scheme due to potential overcrowding at Omihi School.  We are aiming to have this in place by Term 2, 2019. We are still able to take any enrolments in term one.

Under this scheme, students will be enrolled if they live within the home zone.  The enrolment of out-of-zone students is governed by the provisions of the Education Act 1989.

The Act states that first priority must be given to students who meet the criteria for enrolment in an approved special programme run by the school - our school has no such programme.  Second priority must be given to siblings of current students. Third priority must be given to siblings of former students. Fourth priority must be given to children of former students. Fifth priority must be given to children of board employees or board members.  Sixth priority must be given to all other students.

The Omihi school zone is the area both sides of SH 1 from the Omihi Creek at the south end of the Omihi Valley, to the northern railway crossing beside Burrows Road at the north end of the valley.   It includes all properties with residential addresses on SH1 (Omihi Road) between the points outlined above and all side roads between these points. Those side roads being Baxters Rd, Station Rd, Reeces Rd, Crofts Road, Jurys Rd, Sloss Rd and Burrows Rd.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about this. We will also have an opportunity for questions at our whanau picnic.

Whanau Picnic
This is a time for all of our families to come together for an informal picnic and swim. It is on Wednesday 13th February from 5-7pm at school. Please bring along your own picnic and the BBQ will be available for you to use as well.

Beach Ed and Swimming Sports
Beach Ed is at Waikuku Beach on Thursday 14th February. Waikuku children can meet Whaea Jennie there at 9.15am. Year 4-8 Small School Swimming sports is on Wednesday 6th March at Amberley Swimming Pool, children need to be there by 9.15am. Please let me know if you are able to help with transport to either of these events.

3 Way Learning Conferences
These are on Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th March. I will send out a document for you to sign up for a time with your child and their teacher.

School Uniform
We have just ordered some bigger bucket hats, so there are now youth size and adult size. A reminder that uniform bottoms need to be navy please, not black. We also have jackets and beanies in stock for winter.

Omihi Library
Every Monday the whole school will be visiting our library, so please remind your children to bring back any library books each Monday. Please remember that it is a community library so you are very welcome to come and get books out as well. Yo Turnball is our librarian and she is in the library from 12.30-2.30pm on Mondays. But you are welcome to come in anytime. We will also be visiting the Amberley Library once a term. Check the calendar for dates.

Birthdays
Please remember that we discourage cakes/lollies/sweets being sent along to school for birthdays.

Linc ed
This year we have started using a new student management system called Linc ed. It is a system that was designed by a Christchurch Principal. We will be reporting to parents through Linc ed. All children will receive a mid year report and an end of year report. New entrants will also receive a report after 6 weeks at school. These will be sent to you digitally via Linc ed, with the option to print them off if you want to. In term 2 we will send home login details for you so you can access these. It has the ability for interaction between parents, students and teachers and also for us to add in rich content to the reporting, such as photos and videos. Here is a 1min clip to show you what the reporting will look like.

Tennis Coaching
A very talented young tennis coach from the US is working at Black Estate and is available to give lessons on Thursday afternoons, after 3pm for term 1.  Please let me know if you would be interested in your child attending these lessons. There would be one hour for juniors and one hour for seniors. Price will depend on numbers. Penelope - 027 777 0631.

School of Rock
School of Rock is going to be running on Tuesdays again this term. They need 2-3 more children to make it worthwhile coming out to school. If your child is interested please fill in this google form or contact Nolan - 0212466526, nolanhnz@gmail.com.

School Calendar
Keep an eye on the school calendar on our website for events coming up. Here are some trips for your diary:
Year 0-4 visit the Rangiora community garden - Tuesday 19th February
Year 6-8 Teremoana Walk - Wednesday 20th February
Year 5-8 Food for thought visit to Amberley Four Square - Wednesday 20th March
Preschooler morning - Wednesday 27th March

Lunchtime Clubs
This year we are aiming to have clubs each term. This term there will be a running club and a gardening club during lunchtime. Miss Hanna and I are also going to take a mountain biking club on two afternoons. The dates are in the calendar. One will be at the Waipara bike trails and the other one at Rakahuri Rage track in Rangiora. Children will need to be dropped there after school, so we will be in touch nearer the time with those that are interested. if you would like to help with the gardening club or any other clubs, please let me know. We would love to have some indoor clubs during the winter - possibly knitting, coding, sewing, baking, chess, etc.

Community Notices

Omihi School Farm Race - Sunday 24th March, 2019
The entries are coming in fast for our race, please help us to continue to spread the word. If you would like to volunteer on the day, please let me know. I will send a google doc out to parents with all the jobs we need help with.

M Factor Fashion Show for Ronald McDonald House - Thursday 4th April, 2019
This year the show is at The Tannery. We have local stores Bax and Berg and Ruby six involved again and some of our students will be modelling. We would love to see you there to help us support Ronald McDonald House. Tickets are available on Ticketmaster. More details below.